Yen Sid

Yen Sid is the nickname of the fictional sorcerer in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", one of the segments from Disney's "Fantasia". He is an old man with a long beard and robes that extended to the floor. The nickname ("Disney" spelled backwards) was given by Disney animators, as the sorcerer in the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of "Fantasia" had no onscreen name, nor does the character in the original Goethe poem "Der Zauberlehrling", the inspiration for the music piece by Paul Dukas.

In "Fantasia"

Yen Sid appears in the The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment of "Fantasia", where he serves as the sorcerer under whom "Mickey Mouse" is an apprentice. His powers are initially introduced by having him summon light out of a skull, forming it into first a bat-like shape, following by a colorful butterfly. Following the dismissal of the butterfly, Yen Sid yawns, places his pointed wizard's hat onto his table, and disappears from the segment until the very end. The hat, when used by Mickey, provides magical powers, though Mickey does not know how to control the powers, and end up flooding the entire tower. At the end of the segment, Yen Sid re-appears, and uses his innate magical powers to banish the water and undo the spell that caused the problem in the first place - showing that while his hat alone had great powers, it was not the sole source of his magic.

In "Kingdom Hearts II"

Yen Sid appears in the Disney/Square Enix video game "Kingdom Hearts II". He lives in the Tower near Twilight Town along with Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather from "Sleeping Beauty" who give Sora, the game's main protagonist, his new clothes. Yen Sid finally has a speaking role, provided by Corey Burton in English, and Takashi Inagaki in Japanese. He is a greatly revered sorcerer who instructed Mickey Mouse in the use of magic. He is almost worshipped by Donald Duck and is held in high regard by many prominent characters. He is targeted to be turned into a Heartless by Pete, but thanks to Sora's efforts the Heartless never even get near him. Considering Yen Sid's own considerable prowess and might, it can be guessed they would have stood little chance anyway. Yen Sid enables Sora to once more know of the existence of Organization XIII, as well as a new method to travel to worlds through routes opened by the Keyblade. He also gives the characters their Gummi ship, which they had been without since the events of the first "Kingdom Hearts". He disappears afterwards and is not encountered for the rest of the game, seemingly abandoning his tower, which becomes overrun with Nobodies. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, the three good fairies from "Sleeping Beauty", also disappear after seeing Maleficent return to power.

Live action

On February 12, 2007, Disney announced that actor Nicolas Cage would play the role of Yen Sid in a live-action version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". [ [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3iaab9bb7dce6a1ab9faa815956f417ea6 Hollywood Reporter article from 2-12-2007 with Nicolas Cage information] ]

References